Welcome

Catholic Emancipation Essay

Below is an essay on "Catholic Emancipation" from Anti Essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

Why were the catholics emancipated in 1829? (12 marks)

In the year of 1829, the followers of the catholic religion were finally emancipated and given rights after times of hardship and discrimination. This was due to the government being pushed and infleunced by many people in order to grant the people of catholicism their rights.

One of the reasons as to why the government emancipated the catholics was because the catholic association was growing. The association was set up in 1823 and lead by David O’Connell, this was one of the first ever mass membership political movements in europe. David O’Connell held an enormous influence over society, and therefore many people joined the organisation. The organisation earned it’s money through catholic rent which was introduced in 1824, in order to help unite the catholics. Over the years, the organisation slowly grew making it more powerful and more well-known. This showed the government that the support for the emancipation of catholics was growing, pushing the government to get what the organisation wanted. As the government saw this as a threat, they emancipated the catholics.

Another one of the reasons as to why the catholics were emancipated was due to the growth of suppport in government. People such as Canning (the foreign secretary), were in favour of the catholics, and therefore the government did indeed have it’s own support group for the emancipation of the catholics in the government already. He spoke in favour of many people, including William Plunket. This therefore influenced the government to emancipate the catholics, as they were likely to take on board idea’s from the peole who already held their own positions in government.

Another reason why the government empancipated the catholics was because the large majority of Britain were those of the catholic religion. As most of the British peole were following this religion, most of the people were more than likely to be in favour of...